Why Hawkeye is necessary to the Avengers

While being an expert fighter and marksman with a bow and having several trick arrows at his command, Hawkeye certainly seems like he is overmatched when put against any other Avengers teammate. Every other character except Black Widow, and with her it would be a tossup, is physical stronger. Banner and Stark are smarter. Captain America may also be smarter. Thor doesn’t have to be, but with his lifespan, it can be expected that he is smarter in those areas that aren’t specifically related to the planet Earth after the Asgardians left. Again with Black Widow, it would be a tossup. Black Widow is in her own class when it comes to popularity, and she brings the ability to calm down the Hulk.

Hawkeye seems like the most expendable character on the team when examined purely from a power standpoint. If facing off against the others, he would only be able to defeat Iron Man if he had the right arrow to short out the suit, and he may be able to defeat Black Widow if all the chips fell his way. In spite of all this, Hawkeye is an essential character to the team from a storytelling point of view.​Hawkeye provides the viewers with someone that they can relate to. No audience viewer will ever be genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, a monster, a super soldier or a god. However, with enough time to train, everyone can become a good archer who is trying to do the right thing and who also has a family. Without Hawkeye, audiences would be left trying to relate to the qualities of the characters on the screen – the rage, the boy scouting, the snarkiness (starkiness?). With Hawkeye, they have a character that they can fully relate to without having to just pick one trait. And whether the audience knows it or not, this makes Hawkeye essential to the great movies and stories that have been the Avengers. Hawkeye is definitely as super as they are.